What's in the box?
by afrustratedwriter
Summary: Upset that Eren won't be coming home in time for Christmas because of a month long expedition he had to carry out with Armin, Levi, and a couple of others, Mikasa and their daughter Carla, try to make the best of it. But when Armin suddenly arrives early without Eren, but a gift from him instead, something seems a little odd.


**Hello everyone, this is my first time writing an Attack on Titan fan fiction :- i've actually been wanting to write one for a while and i've saved up a ton of ideas, this is just one i've had been wanting to do since i've started getting into the series. I hope you do enjoy and yes, i know its not Christmas but almost Summer actually… Well, we can pretend its Christmas, k? ;-D**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN/ATTACK ON TITAN. I ONLY OWN THE PLOT OF THIS FAN FICTION. **

**WARNINGS: LEVI MAY OR MAY NOT BE RELATED TO MIKASA IN THIS FAN FICTION, JUST SAYING~ **

**Now please enjoy the story :-))) (****Feedback is appreciated)**

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It was a snow-y afternoon in the Yeager household when Mikasa caught her daughter Carla, looking out the window at the front of the house. But, oh no, this was not the first time she's caught the four year old sitting there, on her little chair built especially for her. Actually, she would recall seeing the little girl hanging out by the window from time to time, waiting patiently for her father's return since the beginning of the Christmas season.

For days, Mikasa had tried to pry the girl from her spot at the window but the little girl would always throw a fit and start crying and screaming until her mother would give up and leave her alone.

It really made Mikasa sad, not because of what her daughter was doing, but because of the situation. She didn't know how to tell the little girl that her father wouldn't be coming home for Christmas. Yes, she understood that if it were Eren's choice, he would be here right now, spending Christmas Eve with them like a normal husband and father would, but he couldn't. Of course, his duty as a soldier came before anything else and him being a Titan shifter made him going on all expedition's outside the walls a requirement. And Mikasa understood that. She didn't agree with it, but she understood it.

So, while Eren was off killing Titan's with Levi, Armin, and the others, and coming small steps closer to the truth of them all… Mikasa was stuck; having to be the one to comfort their daughter and wipe her tears that were sure to fall once she found out the truth later that evening that her father wasn't coming home after waiting all day to spot him from her window.

It wasn't that Mikasa didn't enjoy being at home with her beautiful daughter who happened to look nothing like her at all, resembling her father all the way, from her messy brown hair to her sparkly jade green eyes, she even had the same stubborn attitude as him as you could tell, but Mikasa just wished that Levi would have at least let Eren just take the two days of the Christmas holiday off, so that he could be with his family. This would be the first Christmas she would spent without him, ever since his family took her in when they were little. She didn't want there to be a first time especially with them now having a small daughter who was so excited to see him return.

And plus, Mikasa had something important to tell Eren.

The now nineteen year old mother smiled softly to herself as she rubbed her slightly swollen belly, she was finally 16 weeks pregnant as of yesterday and Eren had yet to find out that they were expecting another child. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him, just that she had found out a month after he left on his expedition and yes, they have spoken through exchanged letters, she just didn't think that would be a good way to break the news to him.

So she waited.

But come on, four months later is just about enough for the antisipation to eat you alive. She was tired, she wanted her lover home for Christmas but sadly, she didn't think that was going to happen.

With a heavy heart, Mikasa Yeager, kneeled down beside her daughter, who was blissfully devoting herself to sitting in front of the window and put a delicate hand on her leg, "Carla," she had started out with softness to her tone, the little girl didn't even remove her eyes from her view outside the window when her mother had spoken because she did not want to miss a second in case her father were to pop up from somewhere, but instead murmured a 'yeah?,'

This made Mikasa's job of breaking things to her gently a whole lot harder.

"Carla, sweetie, um… there's something I have to tell you." She rubbed the girls leg to maybe calm her down a bit before she lashed out at her because of what she was about to tell her. She know Eren would do that, and whatever Eren seemed to do, his daughter would do the same. '_They really truly are the same_,' she would always think, but to be completely honest, Mikasa didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

"What is it mommy?" the little four year old had asked, speaking in a complete and clear sentence for the first time in the whole entire day. Mikasa was a little surprised that she had caught her attention so quickly and suddenly wished she had gone back to acting like she wasn't even there.

"Well um… It's about your father."

"What about daddy?" Carla had finally turned to look at her, at the mention of the person she had been waiting months to see, her eyes sparkled excitedly as she waited to hear what her mother was about to tell her. Mikasa wasn't sure if she could tell her anymore. Carla's reaction alone was enough to break her down and have her forget whatever she was going to say. It never ceased to amaze her at how her daughter's eyes were identical to Eren's. She knew better then to look directly into those eyes. Those are the eyes that got her pregnant at fifteen— no not her— not her daughters eyes!— ew!— Eren's! she meant Eren's— because their eyes… are the same— and- and— forget it.

'_Eren Really needs to come home.'_

"Carla, your father isn't—"

_**knock, knock!**_

"Huh…?" Mikasa had thought outloud. Who could be knocking on the door? She wasn't expecting anyone to visit today. She quickly got up from kneeling and walked over to the front door to look out the little peep hole she had Eren make because of her paranoia of unexpected visitors. She was unprepared for the person she saw on the otherside of the door, but not wasting any time to figure out why they were even there in the first place she swunged the door open.

"Armin! It's been long!" she said as she gave the blond young man, whom she's known since childhood, a rib cracking hug.

"Woah—! M-mikasa, hi…" he managed to choke out being that she had knocked the wind out of him with her sudden hug. After returning her embrace, they both pulled away and Mikasa had to look up (Yes, look up) to see his no longer boyish but matured face. Over the past couple of years, Armin had grown a lot taller and has finally surpassed her in height. She also noticed that during the four months Armin was gone, he no longer had the shoulder length hair he had been fashioning since childhood, instead his hair was much shorter.

"Sorry, sorry for squeezing you Armin. I'm just so surprised that you're here. Your hair looks so different! I Like it."

"Really? Thank you. I kind of thought I needed a change after so long, it feels lighter." He bounced on his heels for emphasis and Mikasa just laughed. Suddenly, Armin's eyes wandered down to her growing stomach.

"Ohh… You're uh… ha-ha… You're um…"

"I gained weight?" Mikasa threw in there, watching in amusement as his eyes grew wide in shock and embarrassment.

"What? No, no, no! I-im so sorry Mikasa! I thought you were—"

"It's okay Armin" Mikasa had started laughing, "I'm just messing with you." To prove her point, she placed a hand on her belly and rubbed it, that made the blond relax.

"For real though? Congratulations Mikasa! Does Eren know?"

"No, not yet... Where is he anyway?"

"Oh, uh, That's actually what I'm here about."

"What do you mean?"

"Mommy, who's at the door…?" asked Carla, whom she'd forgotten was still sitting right by the window.

"Is that Carla?" Armin gasped, while walking into the house. He kneeled down and watched Carla squeel in excitement at the sight of him and ran into his opening arms.

"I missed you Uncle Armin!" the little girl said as she squeezed him tighter then any four year old's strength should be.

"Wow Mikasa, I could see she's as strong as you. And wow— Carla, you've gotten much bigger since the last time I saw you. You're getting so beautiful that your dad and I might have to start worrying about you~" Armin laughed as he teased the little girl,

"Your hair!" she gasped as she let go and looked up at him, "I can't play with it anymore!"

"Oh— I'm so sorry Carla I - i—"

she reached up and felt his short hair, "It's okay, I like it."

"Really? Thank you Carla. Your mom said the same thing." Armin hugged her again, the scene actually looked really cute. It was nice to see Carla happy and not obsessing over seeing her father again for a change. Now all that was missing from this scene was Eren.

"Armin, where's Eren?"

The blond boy looked over at Mikasa, then to the floor like he was thinking hard about something, which was starting to make her nervous.

"Where is he?" she asked again a little more urgently. Now she was worried. Why was he taking so long to answer?

"Mikasa, calm down..." He said as he let go of Carla and got up from the floor, "Eren's fine. He just couldn't take time off."

"And how come you could?"

"I wasn't needed anymore. We made a stop at Wall Sina to file some reports and that's when Captain Levi told me I could leave if i wanted to. I asked about Eren but appearently he needed to stay because they needed to monitor him and run a few tests before he could come back home. Eren told me to come spend Christmas with you girls."

"They couldn't let him come just for Christmas?" Mikasa was at a disbelief.

"Unfortunately."

"But it's been four months! They said he could come back in four months!"

"That's the military for you. They said he could come back right after they ran the tests but that could take a couple of days."

"But Christmas is tomorrow!"

"I know, but—"

"That's it. I'm giving that shortie a piece of my mind." Mikasa declared in anger as she stomped over to the coat rack over by the door to get her jacket and boots.

"Wait, wait, wait— Mikasa no—!" Armin suddenly jumped in front of her, "Don't do that, It's not Levi's fault."

"He could let Eren leave if he wanted to." She said as she sidestepped him, she got as far as grabbing her coat before he snatched it from her and put it back where it goes.

"Mikasa, Eren wanted me to deliver a Christmas gift for the both of you."

This caught her attention.

"What?"

"Yes, since he couldn't come, he wanted me to give it to you girls instead."

"Daddy's not coming…?"

Mikasa and Armin stopped arguing and looked over at Carla, who looked like she was about to cry.

"Carla—"

Before Armin could say anything else, Mikasa ran over to her daughter.

"Carla sweetie, that's what I was trying to tell you."

"B-but daddy's supposed to— to be here." It was too late, the waterworks began to fall and Mikasa took her daughter into a hug and picked her up.

"It's okay sweetie, he'll be here in a couple of days…"

"I miss daddy! I wanted him now!" Carla cried out in sadness and Mikasa looked over at Armin who looked equally as upset as she was, she walked over to him and handed him Carla.

"Thanks for that, Now, that's it, I'm going." Is all she said as she grabbed her coat again and walked over to the door.

"But Mikasa—"

When Mikasa opened the front door she was surprised to see a large box covered in green wrapping paper and a red bow on top. She stopped in her tracks.

"What the—? Armin? What is this…?"

"What is what?" He asked with a raised eyebrow as he walked over to her with Carla in his arms still.

"This box. It wasn't here before. How did it get here?"

"What are you talking about? I had it behind me. You didn't see it before?" He asked with a puzzled expression. Mikasa was confused.

"No you didn't. I would've saw it."

"Mikasa, It was behind me the whole time. That's what I came here for. It's Eren's Christmas present for you and Carla." He said simply as he started bouncing up and down to try and calm down the crying little girl.

"Armin, i'm not crazy. I know i did not see this box before."

"Mikasa, I'm telling you, it was there the whole time." He said with the sincerest smile. Mikasa was thrown off. She knew she didn't see the box behind him before but she also knew that Armin would never lie to her so she chose to just believe him.

"Okay, I guess I wasn't looking, I was sort of distracted with the excitement of seeing you again. Maybe i just overlooked it."

"Yeah… you probably did just overlook it…" he trailed off as he started to glare at the box.

That was a little odd…

"So… do you guys want to open it?" Armin suddenly asked as he put Carla on the floor, she had finally stopped crying, thankfully. But her eyes and nose were pink from all the rubbing she did.

"But it's not Christmas yet."

"I'm sure it wouldn't be a sin to open one present early, right?"

Armin had looked over at Mikasa for her approval, in which she complied. She just didn't want Carla to start crying again.

"Fine, but only because it's from Eren and he's not here."

"Yay! Thank you mommy!" Carla cheered as she ran to the present and hugged it, her small arms not even reaching the ends of it. But then suddenly something occurred to the little girl,

"Mommy…? How do we open it…?"

"Oh, right— I'll go get the knife."

"No!" Armin suddenly shouted out really fast as he stopped Mikasa before she went back inside the house, "Uh… I mean, don't do that… You could um… just rip the tape off. It would be less messier…"

"But that would be a hassle, I could just cut the box open."

"But you could endanger us— I-I mean… damage the gift… yeah?"

"What?"

"Anyway— I'll just start ripping the tape off and you girls can just open it."

"Um, okay."

"Come on Uncle Armin! Open it! Open it!" Carla said as she started jumping up and down excitedly.

Armin just laughed, not having to be told twice, he started to rip the tape off of the box. There was something weird that Mikasa noticed though, Armin was trying really hard too hard to keep the flaps of the box closed. Another thing that had been bothering her ever since she laid eyes on the gift was that it looked way too heavy for Armin to have lugged all the way over here alone, not that she was calling Armin weak or anything. Plus the ground was full of snow so the box would have gotten wet on the bottom and eventually would have ripped, unless someone was to pick it up…

"Alright girls, are you ready?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! YES!" the antisipation of wanting to know what was inside the box was eating away at Carla and Mikasa, just that the young mother was a little bit more calmer then her hyperactive daughter. It was the moment of truth, as dramatic as it sounded.

As Mikasa approached the box to open the flaps, something really weird happened, someone suddenly popped up from inside.

"SURPRISE!"

…It was usually really hard to surprise Mikasa since she could easily read a situation or a person like a book most of the time, but nothing prepared her for the moment she saw Eren standing right in front of her inside the box with a bow on the top of his head like an idiot and wearing a big goofy smile on his face. She was so overwhelmed with happiness that she was left speechless, shocked, she covered her mouth in disbelief. But the moment didn't stay quiet,

"Daddy!" Carla cried out while running to him..

"Carla! Oh my goodness! You've gotten so much bigger sweetie!" Eren said as he picked up his little daughter and gave her a big hug and showered her with loving kisses all over her tiny little face. "I've missed you."

"I knew you were coming daddy! I've waited all day for you, mommy told me you weren't coming. She didn't believe me."

"Oh, is that so?" Eren looked over to Mikasa, who was standing a short distance away from them, her hands still covering her mouth.

"Eren, I can't believe you're here." She spoke finally, finding her voice again. The green eyed boy smiled at her, switching their daughter to his left arm and extending his right one for Mikasa to walk into.

"Come here." He said and the young woman did. She wrapped her arms around her husband's waist and gave him a kiss that was long awaited by the both of them, it was filled with the all the _'I love you's'_ and _'I miss you's'_ that could never be said in enough time. When they pulled away, they looked directly into each others eyes.

"Welcome home." Mikasa said while hugging him, her head only reaching his chest now that he was a lot taller then he was at fifteen. She was overwhelmed with happiness, having not seen him since early August, it was about time he came home.

How could she be so stupid as to allow herself to think that Eren wouldn't at least put up a fight against Levi so he could be home for Christmas? _'I should probably apollogize to Levi when i get the chance…' _she thought to herself but then immediately dismissed the thought, he may be her cousin but that doesn't mean she has to be unnecessarily kind to him.

"So, did you girls like your gift?" Eren had finally asked as they all started walking into the house.

"Yes, but I'm surprised at Armin for lying to me."

"Hey! It wasn't technically lying! Eren did have to stay a couple of days for testing! He just got released yesterday!"

"Yesterday…? Then why did you come today?" Mikasa looked up at Eren for his answer, he just laughed.

"It wouldn't have been a Christmas gift if I came yesterday. Plus you probably would have expected it."

Mikasa smiled at that.

Eren had tried so hard to surprise the both of them, had gone as far as getting his best friend in on it and also tricking them.

But it was all worth it.

As they got inside the house, Eren put Carla on the ground and snaked an arm around Mikasa's hip, but then suddenly paused, for his hand had touched her belly my mistake. Knowing that her stomach being bigger was not because she had gained extra weight, he looked down at her with a questioning look.

"Mikasa… What is this…?"

The girl almost laughed at her husband's reaction, placing his hand on her stomach cheerfully, she said: "Oh! I almost forgot~! Eren… we're going to be a family of four!"

He stared back at her incrediously, "What…? W-when did this—"

"The night before you left."

"Oh."

"That was four months ago."

"And you've gotten this big…?"

"Yes."

"Oh, Mikasa this is great!" Eren planted not one, but two kisses on her lips before kneeling down to feel her stomach better. "This is great…"

"You should've seen how Armin reacted though."

"Oh shut up! I wasn't sure, okay?!" He defended himself sheepishlish which made everyone laugh, even Carla, although Mikasa was sure that the little girl had no idea what they were talking about. The girl was just happy that her father was home like she wanted and Mikasa was happy because she didn't have to spend Christmas alone with her daughter, Eren was with them and Armin, and they were all back safe from the expedition unharmed.

It took a lot to surprise Mikasa, but she sure wasn't expecting this to be her best Christams present ever.

**XXX**

_**EPILOGUE**_

_Mikasa: So Eren, how did you get to leave just in time for Christmas?_

_Eren: Well… it took a lot of begging…_

_Mikasa: You had to beg…?_

_Eren: Me? Oh— no. That was Levi. It turned out his birthday is on Christmas Day so he said that the perfect gift from me was if I got away from him. So i did _

…

_Mikasa: Oh… well, I'm glad you're here._

_Eren: Me too. _

**END.**

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**Well, i hope you all liked the story~! Please, do tell me what you all think of it. If you like this fan fiction I'll write some more. :-D. **

**See ya~! c;**


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